One of the greatest investors of the 20th Century, Sir John Templeton, died today in the Bahamas at age 95. If you've invested with a contrarian style or in emerging markets, you probably owe some thanks to what he probably would've called "progress" in those fields.

In the investing world Templeton was known for the work he did on the Templeton Growth Fund, where he was one of the few investors to beat the S&P over the long haul. "If you want to have a better performance than the crowd, you must do things differently from the crowd," he once said.

Templeton did that by exploring the then-completely exotic world of emerging markets. "The other boys at Yale came from wealthy families, and none of them were investing outside the United States, and I thought, 'That is very egotistical. Why be so shortsighted or near-sighted as to focus only on America? Shouldn't you be more open-minded?'"

He also looked for beaten down and neglected companies. He famously bought $100 worth of 104 companies trading at less than $1 in 1937 and quadrupled his money in four years.

In the rest of the world he was known for financing research into what he called spiritual "progress." He felt spirituality and religion were neglected. To change that, he started offering the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1972, which always makes sure it gives out more money than the Nobel Committee.